How a pull payment works
The payer first gives consent: card details at a checkout, a card saved on file, or a direct debit mandate. The payee then sends a request through its own provider, an acquirer or a bank, and the request travels over the scheme to the payer's provider, which approves or refuses it.
With a card, the issuer answers in real time. With a direct debit, the collection is submitted in advance and the payer's bank can return it afterwards, for example for lack of funds.
PSD2 defines a direct debit in these terms: a payment service for debiting a payer's payment account, where the payee initiates the transaction on the basis of the payer's consent.
Why pull payments matter to a business
Pulling suits anything recurring or variable: subscriptions, utility bills, usage-based charges. The customer does nothing after the first consent, and the amount can change within what was agreed.
The price is uncertainty. A pull can be declined, returned or disputed after the fact, so a business that pulls needs retries, dunning, dispute handling and sometimes a reserve.
The payer's side of the bargain is protection: a way to get money back when the payee takes the wrong amount or was never authorised.
Pull payment or push payment?
- Push payment
- The payer instructs the payer's own bank to send the money. The bank has already checked the funds, and the payment is generally final once received.
- Variable recurring payment
- An open banking permission that lets a provider initiate transfers within limits the customer set. It behaves like a pull and is built from pushes.
Where a pull payment shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- CheckoutA hosted checkout for cards, wallets, bank payments and crypto, routed to the best provider.
- LedgerThe double-entry book of record behind every balance, fee and transfer.
Platforms that need it
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.